Insanity - 60 Days

Day ONE
Monday Oct 5th, 2015
FIT TEST

I have been in between programs for a couple weeks now.  I have tried a few programs and quite frankly, have not found any drive to pursue anything completely.  I'm am anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Masters Hammer and Chisel in December so I knew I had plenty of time to find something and I was just making up excuses in my mind.

Over the summer my goal was to stay active, eat healthy but just to maintain my weight, which I did. September and getting the girls back to school and the family back on routine proved to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated and I found myself putting my ME time on the back burner once again.

This past weekend I sat down with my lap top and my Beachbody on Demand and read and watched a few videos.  I knew I wanted something more, something that I need to push myself further and see just how far I could go and get my body ready for Hammer and Chisel.

So, in my mind, the FIT TEST wasn't going to be much of a workout, just 8 moves and seeing how many I could do in 1 minute.  Ok, so Shaun T proved me way wrong.  Sweating like crazy, out of breath, having to stop in the middle of a few of those moves.  But one thing is for sure, it FIRED me UP!!!

Looking forward to what the next 59 days have in store for me and my body and one thing I LOVE about the idea of a FIT TEST...is seeing progress!!

Here is the schedule I'm following. I am doing Insanity and eating according to 21 Day Fix. I made this schedule open so you could follow it and use your own dates!

What is a FIT TEST?  Here are the moves and my results!

Want to join me on this insane journey??  Fill out this form!!!

What is Clean Eating?

I feel like there is so much noise around Clean Eating. Even in my own head. I have been working on my own lifestyle changes for the past year now and I want to share what I have learned with you.
Hopefully this will help you with the learning curve and get you on the road to permanent lifestyle changes!

Here are some Clean Eating basics...I will do another post with some more advanced Clean Eating options (Clean Eating 201).

What is Clean Eating?
- eating 5-6 meals daily, spaced 2 1/2 - 3 hours apart
- combining a lean protien with a complex carb at each meal
- drinking 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water daily
- eating whole foods that are unprocessed (found in nature) or minimally processed
- incorporating heathy fats into your daily meals
- adhering to proper portion sizes
- eating breakfast within 1 hour of rising
- limiting or eliminating alcohol
- planning and prepping meals in advance (weekly or daily) to prepare for unexpected circumstances in order to eat clean where ever you are


What Clean Eating isn't:
- it's not a temporary diet
- eliminating entire food groups from consumption
- eating processed foods that are fat free, sugar free or carb free
- eating clean 100% of the time - it's nice to indulge or treat yourself every so often, using the 80/20 rule

Run for Heros - September 20th, 2015

As September approached and Back to School was here for the girls, I found it difficult to maintain my workout and running schedule.
At the Run for Heros race, I was planning on seeing and running with some amazing friends I have met through work, running and others I have just known forever :)
I tried not to overthink this run, and decided that based on my training or lack there of, I would set a reasonably tough goal for myself of hitting the hour mark.  It was slower than the previous two 10Ks I ran earlier this year but again, my training leading up to it was not as consistent.

The morning of the race, I got up and prepped like I had for previous runs and races. I tried to calm myself and not put too much pressure on. As I met up with friends and family, I grew excited.

It wasn't too busy at start line, and after the gun went off, and we all took off out of the gate, I checked my Garmin (Forerunner 330). I was running at a 6:30 pace, I wondered if maybe it reverted back to kms, but it was on miles so I knew I had to slow down...as I wouldn't be able to sustain this pace. I settled into 9:00-9:10 min/mile pace.

I felt great for the entire race and I was so excited when I finished with a time of 56:53, far quicker than I was expecting!

Now it's GO time as I prep for my 1/2 Marathon in Toronto in October.  This run certainly build my confidence as we head into October!

After the run, I was thrilled to have some of my friends back to my house (since it was in Amherstburg). Luckily we all had a great run that morning, so I didn't feel too bad when I brought out the cheese, bread and flavoured oils :)

Sweet Potato, Egg and Cheese Skillet

All I can say is wow!! This was even more amazing that I had imagined!

I had some baked sweet potato in my fridge from my plan and prep day on Sunday. 

This was a savoury dish but also a little sweet and quite filling!! 

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, baked, removed from skin and cubed

1/4 onion, chopped

1 1/2 c chicken broth 

1 tsp oil

Himilyan salt

1 tsp paprika 

1 tsp cumin

Pepper 

2 eggs

1/3 cup goat cheese, divided 

Directions:

Put oil and broth in a skillet over Med-High heat. 
Add onions and begin to soften. Add spices and salt. Stir. Add sweet potato and add pepper. 
When broth comes to a boil, make a space in the middle and add the eggs. As the water starts to evaporate and when the top of the egg isn't full cooked, turn the heat off and cover the skillet for about 1-2 mins. Add the goat cheese on top of the eggs and cover again until the cheese is warm and smooth. 

Serve immediately. 

Weekly Meal Plan and Prep - Part 2 Meal Prep

Meal prep is a very customizable task. We prep our food for the week but we do make our lunches as a family the night before. 

In order to do that this is how our meal prep work on Sunday's looks. 

- Wash, cut and store all the veggies in large containers in the fridge. This way the kids can self serve for an after school snack as well as lunch packing. 

- Hard boil eggs for the week - it's roughly a dozen for us

- Pre-cook any rice or quinoa for the week depending on the meal plan

- Pre-cook sweet potatoes and or squash 

- Cook up chicken breasts for the week

- Sunday's are when I create my Mason Jar salads, overnight oats or just pack Greek yogurt with frozen fruit for snacks

- Prep any other snacks for the week like Shakeology Balls or Bars

I have attached a quick video outlining exactly how I prep my weekly meals!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTypVa0lE20

Mason Jar Madness

I have been using Mason jars for everything lately.
They are glass, which makes them easy to care for and no worries about the plastic chemicals. They are portable, inexpensive, and look kinda pretty :) You can make mason jar salads or anything else for 5-7 days in advance!

This is a glimpse of what my meals look like for a day (although my dinner is not here)!
This is the breakdown and 21DF containers:
Breakfast – Chocolate and PB (my favourite and the healthiest meal of the day!) (1 red, 1 tsp)
Morning Snack – Greek yogurt with frozen cherries and mango, sprinkle of seeds - which I added right before I gobbled this up! Seriously my favourite snack! (1 red, 1 purple, ½ orange)
Lunch – Salad Jars…I'm a little mad for mason jars right now - oil & vinegar, veggies, chickpeas, chicken breast, feta, seeds, lettuce (1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red, ½ blue, ½ orange, 2 tsp)
Afternoon Snack - veggies and roasted red pepper hummus (1 green, ½ blue)
Dinner – would be something with 1 red, 1 green, 1 purple, 1 yellow – so for example: a chicken salad wrap with salsa
Here is a short video I made around making mason jar salads.  Check it out, I would love to hear what you think!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAab4bMfxK0

Canada D'Eh - July 1st, 2015

A friend of mine had a Bib for the Canada D'Eh Race in my hometown of Amherstburg. She was not able to participate, so she gave the bib to me. I took it because I was going to be around that day, but honestly hadn't been training too consistently after the Moon in June. Since this was a 5K, I wasn't too concerned and just thought, I would do the best I could, given the training.  I didn't have a pace watch, I didn't know how I was going to do. I thought to myself, it's fine...just go out and do the best you can, run based on how you are feeling instead of what a watch is telling you!!!

I had no idea how I was doing until the very end when I crossed the finish line...out of breath and sick to my stomach...maybe I pushed a little too hard at the end, but I still had a little gas left in my tank and I wanted to finish strong. I was incredibly pleased with my 26:20 finishing time!!! It's good to mix some 5K's in with the longer distances...it pushes you in different ways and actually help to boost my running confidence some more :)